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Kashf (Arabic:كشف) "unveiling" is aSufi concept dealing with knowledge of the heart rather than of the intellect. Kashf describes the state of experiencing a personal divine revelation after ascending through spiritual struggles, and uncovering the heart (a spiritual faculty) in order to allow divine truths to pour into it. Kashf is etymologically related tomukashafa "disclosure"/ "divine irradiation of the essence",[1] which connotes "gain[ing] familiarity with things unseen behind the veils".[2] For those who have purified their hearts, and who come to know the Divine Names and Attributes to the fullest of their individual capacities, the veils in front of the purely spiritual realms are opened slightly, and they begin to gain familiarity with the unseen. In Sufism, an even further revelatory capacity exists by which the Divine mysteries become readily apparent to the seeker through the light of knowledge ofGod. This is calledtajalli "manifestation".[3]
Two passages in theQur'an serve as the most solid basis for elaboration on the Sufi concept of kashf:
The verb "kashafa," but never the noun "kashf" occurs in theQur'an a variety of times in the sense of either "to uncover" (a part of the body) or "to take away" (misfortune, danger).[1]
Hadith of the Veils
Onehadith holds particular significance for the concept ofkashf:
إن بين الله عز وجل وبين الخلق سبعين ألف حجاب وأقرب الخلق إلى الله عز وجل جبريل وميكائيل ، وإسرافيل ، وإن بينهم وبينه أربع حجب : حجاب من نار ، وحجاب من ظلمة ، وحجاب من غمام ، وحجاب من الماء.
Between God, mighty and sublime, and creation are70,000 veils. The nearest of creatures to God, mighty and sublime, areGabriel,Michael, andRaphael, and between them and Him are four veils: a veil of fire, a veil of darkness, a veil of cloud, and a veil of water.[5]
This Hadith is quoted somewhat differently byIbn Majah as follows:
God hasseventy thousand veils of light and darkness; if He were to remove them, the radiant splendors of His Face would burn up whoever (or ‘whatever creature’) was reached by His Gaze.[6]
It is said thatMuhammad's cousinAli ibn Abi Talib prayed:
My Lord, grant me complete severance of my relations with everything else and total submission to You. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts with the light of their looking at You to the extent that they penetrate theveils of light and reach the Source of Grandeur, and let our souls get suspended by the glory of Your sanctity.[7]
Al-Qushayri expands onal-Kalabadhi’s proposal thattajalli (manifestation) of"the essence" of the Divine is calledmukashafa. He then illustrates three stages in progression towards understanding the Real:
Al-Ghazali—This Sufi scholar discusses the concept ofkashf, not purely in its mystical sense, but also with respect totheology in general. In conjunction with Al-Kushayri, Al-Ghazali linkskashf with intuition. For Al-Ghazali,mukashafa has a dual sense:
Since, for Al-Ghazali,kashf is linked tointuition, he describesmukashafa as the certain knowledge of the unseen discovered by the "science of the saints".[1] Thus,kashf is considered"a light," that is freely bestowed upon the purified worshipper through the grace of God, yet also yields sure intuitive knowledge for the worshipper upon whom it is bestowed.
Ibn Arabi—This Sufi mystic indicates the necessity for "divine unveiling" (kashf) as the means by which to understand the universality of thereality of realities (i.e. the universality of God's oneness). Infana (self-annihilation), the individual ego passes away and divine self-manifestation occurs. This self-manifestation is eternal (as it comes from God), but it must be continually reenacted by the human in time. Therefore, the human becomes a pure receptor required for pure consciousness to be realized. The human is a sort ofbarzakh or intermediary between divinity and elementality, between spirit and matter, and open to the experience ofkashf.[8]
Ali Hujwiri—The author of the Persian Sufi textKashf ul Mahjoob (Revelation of the Veiled) Hujwiri argues, along with Al-Kushayri that fewreal Sufis exist anymore in his time; rather, there are a large number of "false pretenders" which he callsmustaswif—"the would-be Sufi". In his text, Hujwiri describes the"veils which should be lifted" in order to purify one's heart and really pursue Sufism. Hujwiri argues for the importance of "morals" over "formal practice" in Sufism.[9] He was the first to directly address the problematic diversity inMuslim belief during his time. InKashf ul Mahjoob, he describes various Sufi approaches to theoretical ideas, linking them to particular key Sufi figures.[10]
In Shi’ism, the spiritual experience ofkashf is treated as a theological rather than purely mystical dimension.
The concept ofkashf remains controversial in the Muslim world because it indicates the ability to "know" the unknowable. According to the Qur'an, Muslims are required to believe in the unseen (namelyAllah), but knowledge of the unseen is a power that should belong solely to God. But it does not contradict the Qur'an because only God has knowledge of the unseen and if someone else other than God has that knowledge, then it's only because it was given to them by God.
Sufis further would argue that "the only guide to God is God Himself".[11] They do believe that every genuine worshipper has the capability to experience unveiling (personal revelation), but that this personal revelation occurs by the grace of God. Some say, if a worshipper fails to experience unveiling, "it indicates that that person is pursuing Sufism for a reason other than the love of God alone." Ibn ‘Arabi calls this "inner receptivity"[12] to the manifestation (tajalli) of the divine mysteries, the essence of which ismukashafa.
Peripatetic scholars such asAvicenna,al-Kindi, andal-Farabi argue that the intellect unaided by divine unveiling (kashf) is sufficient in order for man to attain ultimate truth.
Sufis such asBayazid Bastami,Rumi, andIbn al-Arabi, hold that the limited human intellect is insufficient and misleading as a means of understanding ultimate truth. This kind of understanding requires intimate, direct knowledge resulting from the removal of the veils separating man from God as given to man by God himself. This iskashf.[13]
The 18th century mysticKhwaja Mir Dard (died 1785) ([who?], relying upon the traditional terminology, classified the revelations as follows in his `Ilm al-Kitab:
